Americans Had Better Start Standing Up

An Advanced Placement World Geography teacher at a Texas high school who encouraged students to dress in Islamic clothing also instructed them to refer to the 9-11 hijackers not as terrorists â but as âfreedom fighters,â according to students who were in the class.

Students at Lumberton High School were also told to stop referring to the Holocaust as Genocide â instead they were told to use the term âethnic cleansing.â

John Valastro, the superintendent of the Lumberton Independent School District, told Fox News that the teacher did absolutely nothing wrong.

âWhat is more dangerous â fear and ignorance or education and understanding,â he asked. âFrom our standpoint, we are here to educate the kids.â

Valastro said the teacher involved is a 32-year veteran who was simply following state teaching guidelines.

A Texas mom became outraged after she discovered a Facebook photo of her child wearing Islamic garb.

The Islamic lessons in the small public high school generated national attention after a photograph of four female students wearing burqas surfaced on Facebook.

April LeBlancâs 15-year-old daughter was one of the students in the photograph. She told Fox News that many parents in the district feel betrayed by school officials.

âMy biggest thing is not the burqa,â she said. âThat was the key to opening up the rest. Itâs scary how far they dove into the Islamic faith. Itâs scary what they taught my daughter. Whoâs in charge of this? How did our superintendent let this slip through the cracks?â

LeBlanc said the students were told that they could no longer use the terms suicide bomber or terrorist. Instead, they were instructed to use the words âfreedom fighters.â

âThis teacher taught her that a freedom fighter is when they give their life for the Holy War â and that theyâre going to go to heaven,â she told Fox News. âThey were saturating these kids in Islam and my daughter is an American Christian child.â

Madelyn LeBlanc told Fox News that it was clear her teacher was very uncomfortable lecturing the students.

âI do have a lot of sympathy for her,â the 15-year-old said. âAt the very beginning she said she didnât want to teach it but it was in the curriculum.â

Her mother added that it was her impression that the teacher did not agree with the quote about calling the terrorists freedom fighters and laced her lecture with sarcasm.

During a lesson on Judaism, LeBlanc said the teacher told the class, âStudents, Iâm supposed to be politically correct and tell you that the Holocaust was not Genocide. It was an ethnic cleansing.â

LeBlanc said her daughter kept detailed notes of every classroom lecture and as she read the transcripts she became disturbed.

âReally,â she asked. âThey canât call the Holocaust Genocide? I was more upset with that than the lessons on Islam. It made me sick.â

And then came the comparison between the 9-11 hijackers and the freedom fighters.

Madelyn said a young man sitting beside her was stunned.

âHe was shocked that we had to call them that,â she told Fox News. âHe laughed and asked the teacher, âIs that a joke? Are you serious? Why do we have to call them that? That makes it sound okay (what they did) And itâs not.ââ

Madelyn said the teacher didnât know how to respond.

âShe said it was something we have to learn for the end of the year testing,â she said. âIâm sure it was very difficult for her to do.â

Madelyn said the lesson about freedom fighters made her feel âterrible.â

âThat made it sound like what they were doing was okay,â she said.

The superintendent also defended the lesson on freedom fighters.

âThe whole idea behind this particular lesson â do you call yourself a freedom fighter or Islamic jihadist â or whatever it is you want to be called â youâve got to put things in perspective,â the superintendent said. âWeâre trying to teach the kids to discern for themselves that one thing can be called many different things.â

Valastro said itâs important for students to understand context.

âWe might see it as terrorism, but from the Islamic side they might call it jihadist or freedom fighter,â he said.

The superintendent said he was not aware of the specific comments made about the 9-11 hijackers â but conceded there was only one side to the attack.

âI do agree it was a terrorist attack,â he said. âBut in several classes across this country, youâre going to have a make-up of students from all over the world in your class. We teach it as an act of terrorism â whereas they are teaching it to their kids as a revolutionary event.â

Fox News has learned that the lessons were not part of a controversial statewide curriculum called CSCOPE. That program has generated massive criticism for being pro-Islam and anti-Christian.

Janice VanCleave, a vocal CSCOPE critic and the founder of Texas CSCOPE Review, said that may be the case â but the fingerprints of CSCOPE are all over the AP class.

âWith or without the lessons, the class was using required information set by CSCOPE and required by the superintendent,â she said.

VanCleave said she was personally disgusted to learn that Texas school children were being taught that the 9-11 hijackers were freedom fighters.

âThis has to stop right now,â she said. âTexas superintendents and school board members are to blame for CSCOPE being in Texas schools. Anyone of them that promotes the use of the title of freedom fighters for those who destroyed and killed so many on 9-11 need to be removed from our schools today.â

VanCleave said school administrators who support CSCOPE are âworking to destroy Texas education and teach our children untruths.â

One controversial lesson actually instructed students to call the Boston Tea Party a terrorist act.

The point here is to pay attention to what the hell they teach in school and then discuss these issues with your kids.

For example, my daughters in 11th grade. We discuss current news everyday. I also tell her that when her kids come home from school in x number of years from now and were fed bs about how great Obama was, you'll know the truth, that daddy never took you anywhere because it's Obama's fault gas prices were too high.

Then she'll say some lame shit like GS controls the oil prices and there should be higher margins on oil traders. But I digress. It;s fuckin mess talking about anything in my house.

The teacher should be commended. We need more understanding and less ignorant, nationalistic chauvinism and flag waving. We act like imperialistic thugs and then are surprised when they get pissed off at us.